Willoughby: Aspen ski runs in 1916 — a forgotten chapter in Aspen’s ski history

Mike Kobey communicates with me sharing his Aspen history research. His family had one of Aspen’s major downtown businesses. He discovered an article about the Winter Sports Club that formed in Aspen in 1916, and skiing was one of the sports. His relative, Albert Kobey, and my mother’s father and uncle William and John Sheehan were key members. It was a surprise to me, especially as I had never heard about it from my family.

The club formed to provide facilities for skating, skiing, and coasting (coasting was likely what we might call sledding today).  Members would pay $1 a month ($22 in today’s dollars) during the winter months to gain access. They intended to limit membership to 75, but it gained momentum quickly and in two months in the fall it had 97 members, including 16 women.

Checking some of the member names, many were Aspen High School classmates in the late 1890s. Charles Dailey, The Aspen Times publisher/editor, was a member as was Mansor Elisha who ran the Jerome. Many of you remember Maude Twining, who was one of the school classmates.

The club president was Albert Kobey. William Sheehan was secretary and treasurer. There was a committee for skiing that included Stanley Stiltzer who worked for the Electric Light Company, H.W. Clark the county Attorney, and Ollie Traver who worked for Tomkins Hardware.

The skiing committee organized volunteers to create what they described as three ski runs with different starting points and difficulty, one targeted for beginners. The length was 3,000 feet. Fifteen to twenty volunteers showed up to clear the runs of brush near the end of October.

The location, as described in the newspaper articles, was near “the reservoir.” That is what they called a lake near, at that time, the hospital, close to Hunter Creek. The areas above the reservoir going up Smuggler Mountain was devoid of trees. The slope is gentle at the bottom but gets steeper as you climb. It was a poor choice for snow depth, but, although there are no details reported, it was open treeless property they could have access to.

In January of 1917 after the volunteers had prepped the ski course, “some “Gink” rode his horse up the coarse, punching it full of holes and ruining it entirely.” It was well into February before it was finally opened. 

The ice rink, formed at the corner of Galena and Hopkins, attracted more attention. In 1916, they held a carnival that attracted 500 people. The Times wrote, “Winter Sports Club is surely a set of live wires and we take our hats off to them being the best boosters in the town.” They also sponsored High School Night with discounted ticket prices.

The big news in 1918, announced by Martin Healy, who later was my mother’s stepfather, was the addition of a heated restroom for the ice rink.

That was the last year of the club. The major mines stopped production, young men were drafted into WWI, and the influenza devastated Aspen. The next generation formed the Roaring Fork Winter Sports Club in 1937, with similar goals to the one in 1916; and then shortly after, it was renamed and refocused into the Aspen Ski Club. Some of the founding members had been very young boys and girls in 1916 when their parents-relatives were involved in the Winter Sports Club.

Tim Willoughby’s family story parallels Aspen’s. He began sharing folklore while teaching at Aspen Country Day School and Colorado Mountain College. Now a tourist in his native town, he views it with historical perspective. Reach him at redmtn2@comcast.net.